Activist Rabbi Glick Campaigning for Special Temple Mount Guidebook

The Temple Mount Heritage Foundation (TMHF), headed by Rabbi Yehudah Glick, is launching an online crowdfunding campaign to raise enough money to publish a unique Temple Mount guidebook, “Arise and Ascend: A Guide to the Temple Mount,” in Hebrew and English. The Russian-­language version is already in print.

The book was written by Dr. Meir Antopolsky in a joint effort between TMHF and the Meeting Place Association of Jerusalem, with the goal of making the Temple Mount accessible and meaningful to its visitors and to the millions of people around the world who want to learn more about the site, considered the holiest in Judaism.

“Arise and Ascend” has been widely endorsed by diverse religious leaders around the world and includes introductions written by Israel’s Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, chief rabbi of the town of Efrat; American Pastor Keith Johnson, who founded the Biblical Foundations Academy International; and Muslim and Islamic scholar Adnan Oktar from Turkey.

The first advance copy of the book was presented by Rabbi Glick to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a meeting during which the two discussed the present situation on the Temple Mount. “He who does not study and understand his past misses out on any understanding of the present and the future,” Netanyahu said during the meeting. “This is the only way we can really understand the connection between the people of Israel [and] Jerusalem.”

The book, researched from historical, archaeological, religious, and Biblical perspectives, leads visitors on a self-­guided walking tour in a clearly laid ­out path intended to preserve the sanctity of the Temple Mount. It includes maps, timelines, and color photos, and cites scholastic as well as Biblical and Talmudic sources, drawing from historical accounts, archeological records and scriptural verses to reconstruct the site as it was in the past and explain its present condition.

It is dedicated to the memories of Yitzhak and Talia Imas, two of the earliest advocates for freedom of access and prayer on the Temple Mount. The couple spent many years learning and teaching others about the Temple Mount’s importance to Israel. They were killed by Arab terrorists in 2010.

The month-­long online campaign to publish the guidebook was launched Tuesday on Causematch.com. The campaign’s initial goal is to raise $10,000, which will be matched by donors for a total of $20,000 which the TMHF and the Meeting Place Association will use to print and disseminate copies of the book.

POPULAR CATEGORY

Jspace News is one of the fastest growing online Jewish newspapers, founded in 2011 to document news on Israel, the Middle East, and Jewish world at large. It was established to provide a single source where the entire Jewish and Israeli community could come together in conversation.